About This Book

One hundred years ago a young man named Jan Welzl left his home in Europe and headed for the Far North. He rode off in a horse-drawn cart, traded the cart for a sled pulled by reindeer, and was gone for thirty years. Like Robinson Crusoe, he turned adversity into adventure and the wilderness into a dream, where anything could happen and anyone could be a hero.

In this reissue of one of his earlier works, award-winning author/artist Peter Sis explores the life of Czech folk hero Jan Welzl and re-creates his extraordinary Arctic odyssey. Mixing fact with legend, he paints the fascinating story of a little-known explorer and the native people who became his teachers and his friends. With maps, storyboards, panoramas, and even a myth told in pictographs, Peter Sis has concocted a visual feast.

Praise for A Small Tall Tale from the Far Far North

"Sis casts a spell of enchantment... Jan Welzl never had a better friend." — The Washington Post Book World

About the Authors or Illustrators

Peter Sis is an internationally acclaimed illustrator, author, and filmmaker with more than twenty books to his credit. His picture book THE WALL: GROWING UP BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN was a 2007 Caldecott Honor Book, and STARRY MESSENGER: GALILEO GALILEI and TIBET THROUGH THE RED BOX were 1996 and 1997 Caldecott Honor Books, respectively. Peter Sis lives in the New York City area with his family.